By the way, in case I haven't mentioned this, Spike doesn't have his soul, and he didn't die. Obviously neither did Anya. Ok, just wanted to make sure that was clear. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I tried to figure out how Buffy should find out about Spike.
Disclaimer: We've been through this for five chapters.
A Year Later
"So, you're going to tell your mom about Spike?" Dani asked Cori, digging through her bookbag.
"Yeah, tonight, Spike's gonna come over, we'll have dinner with my mom, and then go out somewhere," Cori smiled as she thought over the agenda for tonight.
"Sounds good," Dani finally found what she was looking for: an old, tattered notebook. "Ok," she flipped through it, "we're supposed to do the project by...Monday."
"Ha! See, I told you," Cori grinned. "We have to do it the day after tomorrow."
"Why then?"
"I don't know, maybe 'cause that's Sunday," she rolled her eyes.
"Fine," Dani stuffed the notebook back into her bag. "Thank God we only have a few months left of this hell-hole. Then, I'm outta here."
"Where're you gonna go?"
"I dunno, but not here," Dani shrugged her bag onto her shoulders and they continued their walk home from school. "Maybe some small town. Not with a hellmouth thing going on, but someplace nice."
"Sounds like fun," Cori nodded. "Somewhere there's no vampires, or demons, or any of that shit," she looked dreamily into the distance.
"What about you?"
"I think I'd like to go out to someplace in the country. You know, more farms and grass then businesses and concrete."
"Hey, out of curiosity, what're you gonna do about you being mortal, and Spike being immortal?" Dani asked, having wondered about this several times.
"Well, I found out that there's this special mixture of herbs, if taken a certain way, will make me immortal. I was thinking, you know, after my eighteenth birthday, I'd give it a go," Cori answered, trying to sound casual.
"That's awesome," Dani said. "But you might have trouble, having to leave every few years, so no one gets suspicious."
"I know," Cori kept her gaze on the road ahead.
"But, this isn't the kind of thing you'd do, unless..." Dani gasped as the realization hit her. "When?" she demanded. "And who said it first?"
"Last night, and he did," Cori couldn't stop herself from smiling. "I know it's not sex, but hey, 'I love you' is still a big thing, right?"
"For you," Dani replied. "What with your previous fear of commitment."
"I did not have a fear of commitment, I just got bored with a guy after so many dates. Well I did," Cori added when she saw the look of skepticism on her friend's face.
"Sure..."
"Shut up!" Cori grinned. "But, I'm willing to forgive you, if you help me pick out some outfit for tonight."
"Let's see, something totally sexy for Spike, but conservative enough for your mom...hm," Dani looked lost in thought for a few moments. "I don't think it's possible, but I'll do my best," she finally said. "Hey, can I stay for the dinner? I wanna see yyour mom's reaction when she finds out you're with a vampire."
"Yeah, sure, whatever, all my mom's friends are gonna be there, just don't try to make it worse," Cori warned her.
"Oh, come on, would I do that?" Dani gave her friend an innocent smile.
"Yes," the black-haired girl didn't fall for it. "Like when you told my mom that I'd snuck out to go on a date."
"That was an accident. She tricked me," Dani defended herself. "She acted like she already knew you were out."
"Sure..." her friend repeated what she'd said earlier.
"Ha ha, very funny," Dani gave Cori a dirty look. "So, see you tonight," they stopped in front of Cori's house.
"Remember, come early," Cori called as she went to her house. Dani waved back and continued on to her house.
That Night
"Hello?" Buffy opened the door, slightly nervous. When it turned out to be Dani, though, she just smiled ruefully and directed her to her daughter's room. "false alarm," she told Willow and the others when she returned to the kitchen.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he's a great guy," Willow tried to reassure her friend.
"It's not that, well, it is, but the other thing is I finally decided to tell Cori about her father. Angel's gonna come over for dinner."
"What?" The other Scoobies looked at her in surprise.
"She knows," Buffy explained at their expressions. "He's supposed to be here in a few minutes."
"I hope he doesn't try to kill her boyfriend," Anya shot Xander a look.
"Xander?" Willow asked him.
"Well, I...my daughter...fine, I saw Laura with a boy, and I tried to...um, kill him" Xander avoided their gaze. "Oh, like you wouldn't have done the same if you saw some...guy on top of your daughter!"
"That's why Oz didn't know about Rose's boyfriend until after I met him," Willow nodded.
"Yeah, and then when I met him, he was afraid of me," Oz smiled slightly at some memory.
"Very nice," Buffy smirked.
"Oh yeah."
"All right, well, how about this?" Dani laid out some clothing on Cori's bed after rummaging in her closet and dresser.
"Do you think it looks good?" Cori came out of her private bathroom, wearing the outfit Dani had icked out. She had leather pants, knee-high boots, a corset, and arm-warmers, that ended with a loop around her middle fingers, all in black.
"You look hot," Dani grinned her approval. "And, until you leave your mother's sight, keep this on," she threw her friend a thin zip-up sweatshirt. "The last thing you need to do is get her to freak out over your clothes."
"Tell me about it," Cori laughed, slipping on the sweatshirt and zipping it up. "As it is she's probably going to think Spike's too badass or something."
"Ha ha, can't wait for that," Dani grinned at the thought, then a sympathetic expression slid onto her face. "How're you feeling about...your dad coming over?"
"It's all right, so long as he's not some jerk, ya know?"
"Makes sense," Dani nodded, as they heard a short scream from below. "What the hell?" they ran down stairs to a surprising sight.
Ha ha, my first attempt at a cliffhanger. So, wait 'til next time and I hope this chapter wasn't too bad, I'm still having some trouble with writer's block. Please review, they make me feel loved.
